bleedingTNorange
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1. Pretty much what the doctor ordered…Ole Miss really started hot from 3 and our defense was a bit lacking to match early on, but the offense was really humming and kept pace. After the first 8 minutes or so the defense really locked down, a switch to zone (WHAT?) helped disrupt Ole Miss and from that point on Tennessee really had control of the game and continued to slowly extend their lead.
2. Don’t look now but Tennessee has really been shooting the ball much better from 3 of late, that’s been spearheaded by Vescovi who over his last 10 or so games has really been a big time threat from 3. Add in JJJ’s return from injury and his threat from 3, albeit sometimes inconsistent, and we are getting some more shots to go down. That’s huge for this team as they need it for spacing, allows the bigs some room to work and then also for guys like Mashack and Phillips to drive the lane.
3. Have to clean up the turnovers, I know without Zeigler that’s a tough ask and I’m being lenient a bit in that I’m not expecting perfection, but the telegraphed “pick 6” type passes that lead to a run out dunk or layup have to stop. Seems like we had 4-5 of those today which gifted Ole Miss 8-10 points, our defense is so good that you hate giving that up to teams and not making them go against your half court defense. This next game will be another test in that as Missouri loves to turn you over and try to score in transition, and not just 2’s, they’ll gladly pull from 3.
4. Check out this stat, when Tennessee is called for 20 or more fouls they are 2-7, less than 20 and they are now 21-2…and those 2 losses are the Vanderbilt & Missouri games in which both teams shot extremely well from 3 and needed buzzer beater 3’s to beat us, in other words that stat is even closer to being 23-0. It makes sense when you think about, less than 20 fouls suggest refs are letting our defense be a bit physical, that we don’t have foul trouble and thus that gives you defensive versatility playing different lineups, offensively too.
5. Related a bit to #4…Tonight I kept wondering if/when we’d see a small lineup and Rick waited until the 11 minute mark to put it out there, I would just about guarantee this is because they fear some early foul trouble to guards and that handcuffing them for the rest of the game. It will vary by team but Ole Miss doesn’t have a post game, where they had any success was typically caused by some quickness and spreading us out so going small was a great matchup for us against them, and when we did it really showed, Ole Miss scored just 7 points the final 11:07 against small ball lineup, that’s a 25 point pace for an entire game. And the fact Rick went with it for final 11 minutes tells me it was something they wanted to do, just felt like they had to wait.
6. Absolutely had to have that one, would really like to win tomorrow as well and then honestly I don’t care, get us to the NCAAT healthy and hopefully with some momentum and confidence. We didn’t get any help around us on the seed lines, we went into today projected as the final #3 seed, I don’t think that changes with a win, we likely eliminated a chance of a 5 seed and wins in front definitely removed a 2 seed, so almost certainly looking at a 3/4 right now. It’s hard to say because the conference tournaments never seem to matter much so who knows, I would feel better about a 3 with a win tomorrow but again it may or may not even matter either way, we’ll likely never know.
GBO!!!
2. Don’t look now but Tennessee has really been shooting the ball much better from 3 of late, that’s been spearheaded by Vescovi who over his last 10 or so games has really been a big time threat from 3. Add in JJJ’s return from injury and his threat from 3, albeit sometimes inconsistent, and we are getting some more shots to go down. That’s huge for this team as they need it for spacing, allows the bigs some room to work and then also for guys like Mashack and Phillips to drive the lane.
3. Have to clean up the turnovers, I know without Zeigler that’s a tough ask and I’m being lenient a bit in that I’m not expecting perfection, but the telegraphed “pick 6” type passes that lead to a run out dunk or layup have to stop. Seems like we had 4-5 of those today which gifted Ole Miss 8-10 points, our defense is so good that you hate giving that up to teams and not making them go against your half court defense. This next game will be another test in that as Missouri loves to turn you over and try to score in transition, and not just 2’s, they’ll gladly pull from 3.
4. Check out this stat, when Tennessee is called for 20 or more fouls they are 2-7, less than 20 and they are now 21-2…and those 2 losses are the Vanderbilt & Missouri games in which both teams shot extremely well from 3 and needed buzzer beater 3’s to beat us, in other words that stat is even closer to being 23-0. It makes sense when you think about, less than 20 fouls suggest refs are letting our defense be a bit physical, that we don’t have foul trouble and thus that gives you defensive versatility playing different lineups, offensively too.
5. Related a bit to #4…Tonight I kept wondering if/when we’d see a small lineup and Rick waited until the 11 minute mark to put it out there, I would just about guarantee this is because they fear some early foul trouble to guards and that handcuffing them for the rest of the game. It will vary by team but Ole Miss doesn’t have a post game, where they had any success was typically caused by some quickness and spreading us out so going small was a great matchup for us against them, and when we did it really showed, Ole Miss scored just 7 points the final 11:07 against small ball lineup, that’s a 25 point pace for an entire game. And the fact Rick went with it for final 11 minutes tells me it was something they wanted to do, just felt like they had to wait.
6. Absolutely had to have that one, would really like to win tomorrow as well and then honestly I don’t care, get us to the NCAAT healthy and hopefully with some momentum and confidence. We didn’t get any help around us on the seed lines, we went into today projected as the final #3 seed, I don’t think that changes with a win, we likely eliminated a chance of a 5 seed and wins in front definitely removed a 2 seed, so almost certainly looking at a 3/4 right now. It’s hard to say because the conference tournaments never seem to matter much so who knows, I would feel better about a 3 with a win tomorrow but again it may or may not even matter either way, we’ll likely never know.
GBO!!!
